Monday, March 24, 2008

Do Not Underestimate Yourself - The Utter Strength of The Human Spirit

WE ALL WEAKEN at some point don’t we? Everyone has a time and a way of succumbing to pressure and capitulating. I wonder however if you have ever thought how strong you really are, and how far you can push yourself, physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually? I think you could easily surprise yourself.
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I am not saying that it is good and healthy to push yourself beyond your capacity—that is not wise—but I am suggesting that your capacity could be a lot higher than you realise.
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- Physically: I found in my early 20’s there was a way I could push myself physically that was healthy, and a way that wasn’t so healthy. I could exercise my muscles seemingly beyond endurance—I could push, push, push, and continually set the bar higher and provided I did this in a staged, incremental way, I could push upward seemingly without limit. When it became unhealthy however, was when I overtrained and didn’t get enough rest; training like this taxes your connective tissue more than your muscles.
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- Mentally: Studying cannot hurt you. In fact it is good for you. To remain mentally alert and growing we need to embrace learning throughout the lifespan. We must be careful to make sure we get enough sleep, however. Studying “past” sleep would be a good example of pushing things too far. Again, it’s about balance.
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- Emotionally: How could I push myself emotionally? Forgiveness for one. Is there an issue that might plague me in my relationship with another person? Is there something I need to forgive myself for? There is no practical limit to the power of forgiveness, or for that matter, the power of the human spirit to embrace other emotionally-charged challenges. Pain is not always the best guide of what you can endure, emotionally speaking, though we do need to listen to it and know our reasonable limit.
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- Spiritually: Pushing ourselves without a faith in God is a recipe for disaster. I say this because a faith in God is the only way I know to achieve balance in life that is backed by real purpose and meaning. The spiritual and the emotional are both intrinsically linked and joy should be the ultimate guide.
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Pushing ourselves and challenging our limits should be part of our being. It is only with a healthy push that we can hope to come anywhere near our real potential.
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© Copyright 2008, Steven John Wickham. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.

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